


Dragonbound

by Selah



Category: D'espairsRay, DEZERT (Band), Jrock
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pern Fusion, Fort Weyr, Impression (Dragonriders of Pern), M/M, Weyrs and Weyrlings (Dragonriders of Pern), ambiguous timeline, no name shortening despite canonical convention, these dragons reject gender essentialism in all forms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26219548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selah/pseuds/Selah
Summary: The primary point of a Search was to find likely Queen candidates, but sometimes the dragons wanted more.
Relationships: Sora (DEZERT)/Daichi (ex-Nocturnal Bloodlust)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: VK Yaoi 2020 Challenges





	Dragonbound

**Author's Note:**

> written for VKY's August challenge of a piece influenced by published literature, with the influence being Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern series.
> 
> I've opted not to list this under Dragonriders of Pern fandom due to the complete lack of any canon dragonriders. Ambiguous timeline meaning no idea which Pass, either sometime before 7th or 8th or an alternate timeline entirely, that details was determined unimportant by the muses, so. :shrugs: 
> 
> McCaffery's canon holds a certain place in my heart from when I was a wee baby jaguar in the 80s, but there is a LOT of gender essentialist/TERFy shit in her Pernese society at large and the ways dragons Impress riders in particular is ... trash. So I tossed large chunks into the bin and did my own thing ... only some of which made it into this fic. 
> 
> Despite not carrying the fandom tag, this fusion is HEAVILY rooted in Pern, so if you don't know the fandom, you probably won't get much but confusion from this. Sorry, not sorry!

Hizumi had come to this remote holding because it was his assignment, but he didn't hold out much hope of it being truly worth the effort. Lord Holder Yuga wasn't a _bad_ person - he obviously worked as hard as anyone else in the Hold - but his age made him shrewd. Perceptive. Hizumi had already noticed all the servants were either very young boys or old women, well past their birthing years. Not anyone a dragonrider might be expected to take an interest in.

_Risanth, if this is a waste of time, tell me now so I can spare this Hold having to feed any of us._

His bronze dragon showed him faces, people he wanted Hizumi to collect, but of course he neither offered names nor any way for Hizumi to get those people out of wherever they were being hidden. Hizumi shared a look with his wingsecond, Karyu's lips twitching ever so slightly. Meaning Kogoth hadn't been any more help. Sometimes he really did wish the dragons could be a bit _less_ unconcerned with the details of human interactions.

_You would ask us to read the minds of those not bonded? Are not all entitled to privacy?_

Well, when he put it like that....

“It's been a hard season, my lord,” Lord Yuga said with a pinched expression. “While we are honored by your visit, I am afraid there is little I can afford to spare right now.”

“I can understand that, Lord Yuga,” Hizumi said with a shallow nod. “But we ride in Search. I am required to inspect all Holds and Halls for prospective candidates.”

“And I say again I can spare you no such thing,” the older man said, shaking his head.

 _This is why I need names, beloved. I can spare us all this song and dance if I can just_ ask _for the ones you two want._

At first Hizumi expected another denial. And then the faces came again, this time with their names.

“The dragons require Hiroshi, Sora, Naoto, Kaya, and Suran,” he said, watching the growing twitch in the Lord Holder's left eye as Hizumi said each name.

“I could perhaps spare Sora and Naoto, but –.”

“The dragons require Hiroshi, Sora, Naoto, Kaya, and Suran,” Hizumi repeated, setting his feet and crossing his arms over his chest.

“And I tell you it is out of the question!” the older man insisted. “We are not so prosperous a Hold that I can just surrender five of our young people to you riders! Especially not Suran! We need her to stay here!”

 _He's not far wrong, beloved. We are asking a lot of such a small holding_ , Hizumi sent to his dragon.

_We discussed it. We need them. All of them, but especially her._

Hizumi grit his back teeth, trying to think, quickly, of some argument that might convince Lord Yuga to cooperate. He didn't like what came to mind first. 

“My bronze Risanth says your Suran must be presented to the queen egg now cooling on Fort's sands,” he said at last. “Do _you_ wish to argue with a dragon?”

“My brown Kogoth agrees,” Karyu added. “We need those Hizumi requested, especially Suran.”

From the stubborn set of the old man's eyes, Hizumi expected him to continue arguing his point. And then quite suddenly his entire demeanor changed.

“Once. She may stand on Fort's sands once,” Lord Yuga said. “And when she fails to Impress, you will send her right back to us.”

Hizumi was careful not to promise the older man any such thing; most girls who came to the dragonriders never left, for one reason or another. But if his pretending to agree would get the required people pulled out of hiding, Hizumi would find a way to make peace with an implied lie.

* * *

Sora couldn't help noticing how few of the new riders were his own age, even though half the candidates presented had been his age or older. He also couldn't help noticing the current of worry running through the whole Weyr, though he didn't know what it meant.

Dragons. Sora had grown up hearing the Harpers' stories, of course, but he had always assumed that life was worlds away from his own. Raised in a mining hold, he had expected to live and die as a miner, to always have his life bounded by stone walls. And now instead his circumstances had changed completely, his own dragonet bumbling and stumbling against his shins.

“New riders under the age of seventeen, please take your dragonets and go with Assistant Weyrlingmaster Shuse. Older weyrlings, with me,” Weyrlingmaster Asanao said with what Sora was starting to think of as his customary disgruntled expression.

“I'm twenty-three,” one of the Weyr-raised riders said even as he nudged his brown dragonet in the right direction. “Can't we find something less insulting than 'weyrling' for us? I'm too old for those connotations!”

“ _You_ might be, but your dragon certainly isn't,” Asanao said as he started leading them away from the Hatching Grounds and the younger new riders. “But that's why we're splitting you into two groups. And since we've managed an even split of Weyr-bred and not, I'll be pairing you up in the same way. You'll share weyrs and assignments and will be working and training completely separate from the younger weyrlings, so Weyr-bred, I'll be counting on you to help your partners to adjust to Weyr life. And don't any of you fool yourselves, there will be adjustments for all of you. The next Fall is calculated to start in the next three turns at the most, and at the rate our queens are clutching, I'll run out of hours in the day to be personally helping everyone before your dragons reach maturity, so! Do your best, and don't be afraid to lean on each other.”

By the time Asanao finished speaking, they had reached a section of the Weyr that had recently been cleared out, though Sora was having a hard time focusing over the anxious hunger of his dragonet and the way Kanath was all but _begging_ to be allowed to go shove his whole head into one of the waiting baskets of fish.

“As I'm sure you've already been told, there is food in your weyrs for your dragonets, so when I call your names, you'll go where I say,” Asanao said, smirking. “Sora and Daichi.”

“A bronze and a blue?” someone protested.

“Why not? You're being paired based on rider, not dragon, and as I think will work best. Deal with it,” Asanao said. “Sora, Daichi, go on then.”

Sora had no idea what that had been about, steering his dragonet into the weyr that would be their home for the next turn or so. They were in one of the older parts of the Weyr, he could tell from the smoothness of the stone walls. More surprising, the weyr had evidently been intended for a pair of dragons and riders, the larger cavern having two rocky 'beds' for dragons while the inner cavern had room enough for two narrow cots, if only just.

“This is one of the oldest parts of Fort Weyr,” Daichi said, leaning against the arch of the doorway between their room and the outer cavern. “These weyrs aren't big enough for even a green and a blue to share, not at their adult sizes anyway. Some of the riders think it's proof that the ancients used to choose older candidates for their eggs. Others think it's proof the dragons used to be smaller.”

“What do you think?” Sora asked, curious in spite of himself.

“Could be either; could be both,” the slender rider said with a shrug. “The only reason it doesn't matter how young a bronze rider is when he Impresses is because queens pick their mates in advance of the flight; the youngest bronzes never stand a chance anyway.”

“Really? I thought it was more about which bronze was the fastest, most agile, most intelligent and so would be most able to actually catch her.”

“I mean, that sort of thing helps, sure, but if it was _just_ about who was physically most capable, a queen's mate would change every couple of flights, yeah? Not exactly conducive to a stable leadership,” Daichi said with a sly half smirk. “I mean, sure, especially with the younger queens, mates change, but Fort's two senior queens have been mating with the same bronzes right along for my entire life now, so … you figure it out.”

The more Sora thought about it, the more he had to admit it made sense. Which then raised a new question.

“What do you think will happen when this newest queen rises to mate?” he asked.

“Dunno, but then I'm just a blue rider,” Daichi said with another shrug. “My Burath doesn't have a chance of catching anything but a green in the first place. Which I'm sure is upsetting more than a couple rider right now.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing, forget about it,” Daichi said, shaking his head and dropping his arms to his sides as he pushed away from the stone wall. “Come on, our dragons have eaten enough for one meal by now, so I might as well show you how to oil your dragonet's hide. This and proper visualization are the most important things we riders do, after fighting Thread, so it's important to learn how to do it right from the start.”

“And you know how already?” Sora asked, skeptical.

“Weyr-raised, remember?” Daichi countered, smirking and then grabbing Sora's sleeve. “That's why we were partnered, why Master Asanao separated us from the teens. Not like you have anything better to do.”

Daichi certainly wasn't wrong, either about Sora having nothing better to do or their dragons having likely had enough to eat already. To his surprise, instead of just telling him what to do, Daichi physically helped him oil Kanath's hide. So of course Sora did the same for Burath.

They were just about to herd their dragonets outside for sunning when a stranger stepped into the weyr.

“Well that's the funniest shade of green I've ever seen,” the stranger said, his expression making it clear that he thought himself funny.

“That's because he's blue,” Daichi said, crossing his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at their guest.

“Your dragon? Nah, has to be a green, It's _you_.”

Sora felt increasingly uncomfortable being a witness to this exchange, but Daichi and Burath were between him and the dragon-sized exit while this other rider was blocking the other exit. Besides, he felt strangely rooted in place, unable to do anything else but continue witnessing their conversation.

“What do you even want?”

“No need to pull attitude with me,” the other rider said.

Sora wasn't sure what had happened, when this intruder had gone from teasing to aggressive. Kanath had picked up on it faster than Sora himself, though, the little bronze dragonet flaring his wings and hissing at their guest.

“Oh is that how it is now then? Still just another greenie, Dai!” the other rider snarled before turning on his heel and marching out of the weyr.

“Fuck you, Batsu!” Daichi snapped, obviously pissed off, but when the blue rider tried to follow his antagonist, the two dragonets got in his way and forced him to stay in the weyr instead.

“Um … what was that?” Sora asked.

“That … that was Batsu being an ass,” Daichi muttered, reaching down to stroke his dragonet's head. “Told you, some of the other riders think I should've Impressed a green. But the dragons decide, the riders abide. In theory anyway.”

Sora was almost positive he didn't have all the pieces to this little puzzle, but Daichi was already urging Burath outside, so perhaps it didn't matter. His own dragonet certainly didn't seem that interested in it anymore.

 _You cared enough to get involved two minutes ago_ , he pointed out, biting back a smirk.

_Much anger inside, but he's gone now. His Mareth says his interests are entirely selfish. Yours deserves better._

Sora stopped cold at those words from his dragonet, the casual way Kanath not only referred to Daichi as belonging to Sora, but colored that belonging in a sexual way. As if it were completely natural for two men to be together like that. It was … unexpected, to say the least.

“It _is_ completely natural,” Daichi said, and Sora almost tripped over his own feet he was so startled by Daichi's sudden closeness.

“Wh-what?”

“Your Kanath was confused by your confusion,” Daichi said with a little smile. “When dragons rise to mate, those feelings can take over in their riders below. And often in others as well. The results are absolutely natural, but it's not like your dragon can mate with mine, so you have nothing to worry about from that. And anyway, you're a bronze rider; of _course_ your dragon would mate with a queen, if with any other dragon at all. But that confusion you're having right now? Yeah, that's the other reason Master Asanao paired us up like this, Weyr-bred with non-Weyrfolk. You all have some swift adjusting to do. Life inside the Weyrs is very different from whatever life you left behind to come here. And not just because you are responsible for a dragon now.”

Hearing all that, Sora felt flickers of guilt, though he wasn't sure why. What had his dragon seen in his mind and then shared with Daichi that this lecture was the result? The other rider wasn't wrong; Weyr life wasn't like what he had been raised to expect. If he was reading between the lines properly, it was a lot better. Or would be, once he was settled and adjusted. Maybe. Hopefully.

“I didn't mean … sorry, I … sorry.”

Whatever he might have been expecting for Daichi's reaction, laughter hadn't been on the list. Or for the other rider to come back to him, standing close enough for casual touch.

“No, I should be the one to apologize, for assuming the worst of you,” Daichi countered, winding arms around Sora's body as he moved even closer. “Most of the time, the boys the dragons bring back need some major mental readjustments.”

“… Kanath didn't tell you what triggered my confusion, did he?” Sora asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

“I doubt he even knows,” Daichi replied, shrugging. “Dragons don't think like we do.”

For a split second, Sora hesitated. If he said the words, he wouldn't be able to take them back later. But would that really be so bad?

“After that rider, Batsu, left, Kanath referred to you as mine,” Sora said, letting one arm curl around Daichi's waist. “It felt … presumptuous. It still feels presumptuous.”

“Feels too much like the dragons decide, the riders abide?” Daichi suggested, chuckling even as he reached up to curl fingers into Sora's hair. “Are you objecting?”

“I don't know, I don't actually know you?” Sora countered. “You said yourself the dragons don't think like us. What if they're wrong?”

“Only one way to find out, yeah?”

Daichi didn't really give him a chance to argue further, pulling him down into a gentle kiss that was somehow enough to unlock what felt like a lifetime of pent up emotions. Dragons, weyrs, everything else was forgotten as Sora's attention focused entirely on Daichi and the way it felt to kiss him. Kissing him, holding him … directing him back towards their part of the weyr.

“Mm, slow down, you,” Daichi murmured, playfully nipping at Sora's lips briefly. “As much as I _definitely_ want to see where this is going, now isn't the best time, yeah? But if you're willing to wait for after dinner, we can swap the cots for the bed that was in here originally.”

“Huh?”

“Two dragon beds? Of course this was a couple's weyr way back, silly,” Daichi explained, reaching up to gently tug a lock of Sora's hair. “This whole section was for couples; we took the larger beds out when we were opening it up, but I know where they got put. We have other things we're supposed to be doing right now, but give it a few hours and we'll get that bed put back in by tonight, promise.”

Chagrined, Sora laughed and forced himself to take a step back. He didn't know what it was about Daichi that made him feel like a hormonal teenager, but the blue rider was right, they could wait for after dinner to get to know each other like that.

 _Told you_ , Kanath said, a definite smugness in his tone.

 _You are two hours old, stop being so full of yourself_ , Sora countered, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes. _This still might be nothing._

And yet the bond with his dragon remained quite full of Kanath's smug amusement. Brat. Well, they would see who was right in the long run. And even if it did end up as nothing more than a first fling, Sora doubted he would regret even a single moment of the experience.


End file.
